Ok suppose you shot a deer, high, low a little far back, what ever, it's dark out now and your worried about pushing the deer in to the next county. You decide to come back in the morning, is the meat still good? I've never experienced this first hand. The longest I've encountered is 4 hours and that deer was already starting to puff up. Luckly the meat was still good. Over night though, I not sure.

The colder it is the more it will help prevent spoilage. The meat should still be edible, but it definitely wont be the best as if field dressed right away. If it is early in the season and really warm, I'm not sure I would keep the meat.

I`ve asked this specific question to a professional meat cutter. I`ve always wondered and worried about the spoilage leaving the deer overnight.

This professional told me......it all depends. Obviously, a lot of factors all come together to influence whether the meat is alright or not, the no-brainer stuff like air temperature, how long the animal`s actually been dead, where it was hit, but he surprised me with something I`d never heard of before. He used a term called, bone sour.Bone sour as he explained it to me is, when the meat begins to go bad due to the heat radiating from the bones of the animal. He told me, this can occur even over a cool night, when you might think the body would chill quickly.

I`d never heard of this before, but he assured me it was a fact. He stated thast a professional can determine whether it`s even worth paying to cut the deer up.

I`ve asked this specific question to a professional meat cutter. I`ve always wondered and worried about the spoilage leaving the deer overnight.

This professional told me......it all depends. Obviously, a lot of factors all come together to influence whether the meat is alright or not, the no-brainer stuff like air temperature, how long the animal`s actually been dead, where it was hit, but he surprised me with something I`d never heard of before. He used a term called, bone sour.Bone sour as he explained it to me is, when the meat begins to go bad due to the heat radiating from the bones of the animal. He told me, this can occur even over a cool night, when you might think the body would chill quickly.

I`d never heard of this before, but he assured me it was a fact. He stated thast a professional can determine whether it`s even worth paying to cut the deer up.

Sorry, I don't buy it. The bones of a deer cannot be any more than normal body temp. at the time of death and they will loose heat just like any other tissue. The closer to the core of the body, the longer it will take for the heat to dissipate. But the bones will not generate heat. Yes, meat is better when it is removed from the bone quickly. But that is because it offers more surface area to cool. It has nothingto do with heat coming from the bones.

Simply put, the faster the meat cools after the kill, the better. A deer left overnight will will retain heat according to the air temp.

I`ve asked this specific question to a professional meat cutter. I`ve always wondered and worried about the spoilage leaving the deer overnight.

This professional told me......it all depends. Obviously, a lot of factors all come together to influence whether the meat is alright or not, the no-brainer stuff like air temperature, how long the animal`s actually been dead, where it was hit, but he surprised me with something I`d never heard of before. He used a term called, bone sour.Bone sour as he explained it to me is, when the meat begins to go bad due to the heat radiating from the bones of the animal. He told me, this can occur even over a cool night, when you might think the body would chill quickly.

I`d never heard of this before, but he assured me it was a fact. He stated thast a professional can determine whether it`s even worth paying to cut the deer up.

Sorry, I don't buy it. The bones of a deer cannot be any more than normal body temp. at the time of death and they will loose heat just like any other tissue. The closer to the core of the body, the longer it will take for the heat to dissipate. But the bones will not generate heat. Yes, meat is better when it is removed from the bone quickly. But that is because it offers more surface area to cool. It has nothingto do with heat coming from the bones.

Simply put, the faster the meat cools after the kill, the better. A deer left overnight will will retain heat according to the air temp.

Dunno JPH, it`s just what I was told.

You`re right, in that, obviously, the bones of the deer cannot be more than the normal body temperature, the rub is, (as I was told), is that, the temperature of the bone doesn`t dissipate as rapidly as the rest of the body in general. In a mostly closed carcus, it doesn`t take much to retain heat, which makes any difference in temperature significant.

Speaking as a former professional chicken killer for Tyson....I learned a bunch about meat and meat spoilage while I was there. We were told/taught it is body cavity that holds the heat, in specific the innards or offal that contain/retain the heat. Bones do retain heat a little longer but more from their being insulated by the meat. The best thing to do with any animal you are going to eat, game animal or not, is get the guts out and the blood out quick then chill the carcass. We had a USDA inspector in all of our areas watching the carcass temps and I talked to and he said the procedure was about the same for beef or swine just not as fast as we were doing the chickens. (128 birds per minute per line)
Mag30079- My experience here in the hot humid bayou state has always been if there is any bloat present at all we don't eat it. I don't know about other areas but here we often don't get cool enough night temps to leave one over night (and still be edible) until December. I will wait as long as instinct tells me to (1-6hrs)and then go see what can be found...if nothing good then we back out and hope for the best at daylight.